


Darcy Lives with the Avengers

by underscore65



Series: Darcy Meets the Avengers [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awesome Darcy Lewis, BAMF Darcy Lewis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1228465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underscore65/pseuds/underscore65
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the shock of actually meeting the Avengers, Darcy is thrown in to live with them. Watch as she adapts her usual routine to suit living in Stark Tower</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Darcy in the Kitchen

When Darcy is in the kitchen she likes to bake. She doesn’t mind what it is; traditional or modern, cakes or cookies, Sweet or savoury, as long as she can bake she finds herself a happy person.

 

That’s why the day after she discovers that in fact she has met all The Avengers before, she finds herself lost in the great wonders that is Tony Starks kitchen. Okay so the guys’ ego is massive, and he doesn’t seem to be able to grasp that he has his own failings, but man, the guy has an amazing kitchen.

 

She was introduced to JARVIS just after the whole, ‘we have collectively watched you grow up’ talk, and so when given his permission to go through and use anything of value she finds, Darcy decides to start with something basic.  
And considering it is close to breakfast, okay so its 4 am and she can’t sleep, she thinks it’s only appropriate to make pancakes. And she has been dealt some heavy information, so maybe she goes a bit over board. Which means that by the time the first Avenger emerges from their room, its Steve and he is about to go for his morning jog at 6 am, she may or may not already have a large pile of pancakes.  
Darcy watches Steve give her an odd stare as he walks through the kitchen to the hall with the elevator, but at least he doesn’t comment. She doesn’t know what she would do if her were to make fun of her for her coping mechanism. But he doesn’t and she is safe. 

 

The next Avenger to emerge is Clint, the carnival boy that goaded her into whipping his ass at archery, or at least that is how Darcy remembers their encounter. He looks at the steadily growing pile of pancakes and raises his eyebrow in question at Darcy. Darcy nods her head, correctly interpreting the question and Clint quickly piles a plate with pancakes, before perching on a stool at the breakfast bar and digging in. 

 

His first mouthful is close to tentative, but after that there is no slowing him, as he quickly gulps down 3. Darcy was sure that he must have eaten at least one of them whole. Clint loads his plate again and eats those just as quickly. HE was on his third plate when the other Avengers all seemed to appear.

 

Steve came back in from the hall, sweat marking his shirt in a way that showed he had been running. Natasha entered soon after him, wearing workout clothes herself, but with no sweat on them. Bruce shuffled in from his room, obviously still half asleep, but he perked up as the first scents of breakfast hit him. It wasn’t long before Thor came bounding in, dragging Jane behind him, and when their eyes fell on the pancakes they both immediately began to eat, knowing Darcy’s prowess in the kitchen.

 

By the time Tony Stark entered all other 6 are thoroughly enjoying the masterpieces Darcy has created for breakfast. Tony opens his mouth as if to say something, but a quick glare from Natasha has him closing it before he too takes a seat along the breakfast bar and begins to eat what’s in front of him. 

 

Once the pancakes are mostly gone and the dishes are nearly all done, Darcy stands to leave, suddenly exhausted form her monstrous cooking effort. As she nears the door she is stopped by a voice.  
‘Looks like you can do more than just debunk electrical engineering theories then?’ Tony voice calls after her. But Darcy just shook her head and continues walking, collapsing on her bed and falling into an immediate sleep.

 

And so it begins. Darcy doesn’t cook breakfast every day. Some days she can’t be bothered to wake up early enough to make enough to feed all of them so she approaches the kitchen and cooks enough for just herself and two guests. On those days there seems to be a rush to arrive just at the time he is dishing up. She varies what she cooks and notices that Clint and Tony are partial to her pancakes, while Thor, Bruce and Steve enjoy her waffles the most. Natasha loves her French toast, and so whenever Darcy makes it, there is no question who will be joining her that morning.

 

Soon Darcy’s cooking expends past breakfast. Days that she finds working in the lab too stressful she finds herself in the kitchen again, whipping up stews or soups for lunch or dinner, sometimes making an enormous cake if she feels the Avengers deserve dessert, which is most days Tony leaves her alone. She bakes cookies and cakes and slices during the afternoon, leaving them on a plate ready for anyone who may wander through the kitchen looking for a snack.

 

One day after a gruelling 4 hours of trying to send Jane to bed, Darcy finds herself in the kitchen baking again. The gingersnap mixture is half put together when she goes to reach for the sugar and finds it held in front of her face. Startled she shrieks slightly, before noticing that it is Steve holding the sugar, looking sheepish that he managed to scare Darcy. She smiles at him, taking the sugar from his hands before turning away from him. Its only after he attempts to had her 2 more items that she gives him the job of mixing it all together while she measure out the ingredients. Steve seems thrilled to be appointed a task and so does so with great gusto, which leads to a half the amount of cookies being made, a shower being needed to get flour out of hair and ½ the mixture on the floor But Darcy doesn’t mind.

 

It’s not long before she gets help from most people in the house. Clint often gets up early to help with breakfast, being eager to cook the pancakes and show of his skills while he flips them in the air. Steve will help when there are cookies involved, and always try to sneak scoopfuls of mixture into his mouth before they are cooked. Thor is often around at lunchtime, hungry before it ready so Darcy gives him tasks to bide him until it’s time to eat. Natasha often comes and lends a hand chopping vegetables and meats with amazing precision, while she and Darcy talk about the most common things, sometimes being joined by Jane as well. Even Bruce arrives a bit early to dinner so he can set the table ranging from ordinary cutlery to the fancy silver wear he found in a cupboard complete with napkin rings and candlesticks. 

 

Even Tony turns up one day, begging Darcy to make an orange peel cake for Pepper because he stuffed something up, and Pepper had raved about the cake last time it was made. Darcy, not one to be bossed around by Tony Stark, pulls out the recipe and starts giving orders to him, and tony who was so shocked that she is actually helping him rather than laughing in his face quickly does his best to follow them. And sure the cake might be a bit uneven with large lumps of flour and a burned top, but the face Pepper gives him when he presents it to her made his day. 

 

The kitchen was always a place of calm for Darcy, a place she can go to get away from the stresses of the world, and in Avengers tower she may need it more than others. But one day as she is finishing up batches of muffins that had choc chip for Tony, Thor and Clint, raspberry for Jane and Bruce, apple cinnamon for Natasha and Steve and a special hazelnut one for Pepper, she thinks that maybe that’s okay.


	2. Darcy in the Loungeroom

When Darcy is in the lounge room she likes to watch movies. Old movies, comedies, romances, straight-to-DVD, it doesn’t really matter what type, she loves them. She loves the corny movies that you have to cringe through, the horror movies that leave you clutching a pillow as protection, the sappy movies that make you believe there is still love out there, because all movies are appreciated by Darcy.

Darcy loves the traditional accompaniments of a movie as well; the smell of popcorn, the dark room the hushed silence, everything about the movies Darcy loves.

And so, when Darcy discovers during her second week living in Stark Tower, that the lounge room can be transformed into an amazing home cinema by just asking JARVIS nicely, well she finds herself a new nightly activity. And she does mean nightly. 

 

As soon as dinner is washed up, scientists are bathed, and if needed in bed, Darcy settles herself down in front of the big screen to enjoy a nice 2 hour long movie. It is soon learnt not to distract Darcy while the movie is on, figured out when Jane barged into the room telling JARVIS to pause it so Darcy could come and check something, and if Darcy gets that angry at Jane, who is by far her favourite, then who knows what she would do to anyone else.

There have been many times when Darcy has snuggled up on the couch to watch a movie and fallen asleep because of her busy schedule, only to wake up the next morning covered in a blanket with a pillow under her head, but she has yet to discover who does it for her yet.

 

For a few weeks it is her solo time, and while Darcy is all about people, she enjoys the time out to herself that she can get captured by the story fully. 

 

One day, after a particularly stressful week in the lab, let’s just say Tony blew up a few important objects, Darcy has finally dragged Jane out of the lab. Of course the only way to ensure she doesn't wander back there is to drag Jane to Darcy's movie nights, a bowl of soup and a cup of tea in hand for Jane, with Darcy’s usual snacks in the other. And of course because Jane is there, Thor somehow finds his way there as well, grateful to spend time with his girl while she is outside the lab.

Darcy decides on a Disney animated movie just to impress Thor, and he is greatly confused by the dancing singing animals that make up the Lion King. By the end of it Jane is passed out on one end of the couch, soup and tea finished, and tucked under a blanket, while Thor is at the other one, shedding a tear at Mufasa’s cloud voice shoveling handfuls of Darcy’s candy into his mouth. Once it finishes he declares it the finest tale ever told before gently picking Jane up and carrying her to their room. 

That seems to be the catalyst that sets off a chain of events that Darcy both loves and adores.

It’s not long before Thor demands to be present whenever she watches her ‘moving images’, but Darcy quickly learns to only invite him to cartoon or animated videos, as anything else that seems close to reality confuses him as he try to go to the hero’s aid when the villain seems to have the upper hand.

And as Thor nights watching with Darcy increase, it’s not long before he drags someone with him. Namely Steve who apparently spends most nights in his own room trying to catch up to date with society by reading newspapers and watching old TV shows. Darcy quickly takes over educating him, showing movies that she feels are quintessential to survive in the modern world, alternating between those and the cartoons with Thor.

One night a few weeks later, she turned away both Thor and Steve, claiming she wanted a girls night of rom-coms, something she hadn't indulged in since Thor had included himself in her movies. Imagine her surprise when Natasha appeared a few minutes later, informing Darcy that both Thor and Steve had insisted she come and watch with her. They watched the rom-com that Darcy had picked out, and Darcy had never felt more awkward, at least until Natasha sat on the couch next to her casually throwing a blanket across them and bringing the bowl of treats into their lap, and image Darcy is sure looks like it is just out of a movie about teenage girl sleepovers. But Darcy doesn't mind, sometimes fake girl time is a good thing.

The next morning Darcy is awoken by sunlight hitting her eyes. She blearily opens them and glances at her position, curled up on the couch her head on one end with her feet in the middle, touching Natasha’s feet, who must have fallen asleep at a similar time to Darcy, somewhere into the 3rd movie. And Darcy doesn’t mind, maybe fake girl time wasn’t that fake after all.

It isn’t long before all Avengers are joining Darcy for movie night at some point during the week. And Darcy has found she can dictate who will join her based on what movie she plays. For instance, if Darcy plays an action, guns-blazing movie she is likely to be joined by Clint, Natasha, Steve and Thor, but fi she plays a comedy with no real plot, everyone comes to watch it. Bruce steers clear of all Horror movies while Thor can’t seem to get enough of them. Natasha is happy to sit through the rom-coms and just endure them, but Tony gets right into them, enjoying them the most. Steve loves the old classics, but they drive Clint insane with boredom, unless it’s a movie filled with old Tommy-gun battles. Darcy even ventured into Bollywood and was met with varying reactions.

And Darcy knows that on the days when they have had a mission, the nights when she is waiting for them to return home from battle and she sits down with Jane and Pepper, telling JARVIS to queue up the classic Disney movie playlist, so that when they do get home they can watch it and unwind, get lost in the innocence that exists in kids movies, forget the harsh realities of life. 

 

Darcy uses the lounge room to watch movies. She used to do it alone, revealing in the silence and peace that allowed her to get engrossed in the movie, now she does it with others. Sometimes there is only one, sometimes the all the chairs are filled, but nonetheless she finds the movies all around more fun to watch with someone there with her.


	3. Darcy in the Lab

When Darcy is in the Lab she likes to keep things clean. 

 

This varies from re-writing notes in books rather than her scrawl on any available paper she finds, sometimes the back of food packets, wiping down tables of built up dust or grease form some machine, throwing out day old food that was left out when one of the Scientist’s Three got a brain wave in the middle of a meal, the usual maid type stuff.

 

But Darcy doesn't mind, she knows that in a work environment there needs to be order, and structure, and if the Scientist’s Three can’t make that happen then she will for them. 

 

And okay, maybe taking the greased stained t-shirt that Tony left on his bench one day may have been too far, but she did enjoy the look of surprise on his face when he turned up the next day and it was washed and folded neatly on the desk (she did it herself using a recipe her mother taught her for getting tough stains out). Plus Tony isn't really that bad of a guy, I mean he offered to pay her for looking after people, a job she immensely enjoys, plus gave her a rent free space. And they still did have their verbal fights, but now days it was more about convincing Tony to do certain things, like shower or eat and often ended with her winning. Plus Darcy discovered that she and Tony shared the same sense of humour which led to a lot more fun when they mandatory fun outside the lab.

 

And really Bruce wasn't that bad. Sure his scrawl looked like a group of ants had run through ink and then had a barn dance, and maybe he had a weird sort of short hand, but that didn't matter because she was able to figure it out after a few questions and a lot of guesswork. Also Bruce didn't like coffee, so Darcy never had to worry about him finishing off the pot without making a new one. Although some of the herbal teas he drank smelt quite a bit, so she had to make sure she had air freshener on hand to air out the place if he wanted one of them.

 

And seriously Darcy had already been taking care of Jane anyway, (and she would of still found a way to do it even if they weren’t able to work together, you don’t go through things like crazy alien landings in New Mexico and then just forget about it), so the fact that she got to do it for money and in a state of the art lab rather than a dust old dress shop made everything ten times better. Also it gave Darcy a sense of pride whenever she saw Jane achieve something, or when one of her experiments didn't blow up in her face. 

 

And sure she took on a mother hen role, but it was okay even though all the scientist three were many years above her in both real age and mental capacity. But that didn’t mean Darcy wasn’t smart. You don’t hang around people like that without picking up a few things. Plus she had always really enjoyed doing experiments as a child; they just mostly focused on the people/social side of things, like how long it would take for her parents to get all their yelling out when they found out about the dog she brought home when he was 9. 

 

Plus it was quiet easy for Darcy too modify her old Jane schedule to include 2 extra people, putting aside extra time to travel to the three different delis in town because everyone had favourite sandwiches that didn't come from the same place, or staying up late with the three of them while she tried to prepare report after report for SHIELD on the progress of many top-secret projects. Or even just making sure she had 3 sets of blankets in a cupboard in the lad so she could drape them over the Scientists who fell asleep at their workbench (most of them, most of the time).

 

And while she was keeping the lab in order Darcy was also able to annoy SHIELD, which was probably her fifth favourite past time. Whether it was sending the wrong reports that had nothing to do with the military weapons SHIELD was trying to get Stark to create , or locking the SHIELD mandated ‘security’ outside of Stark tower or just turning up at SHIELD headquarters randomly requesting an urgent meeting with Fury, wherein which they discussed changing the coffee beans SHIELD had in their break rooms (Fury always said he enjoyed their pointless conversations as they helped take away the stress of the workforce, and there were many times when he had called her up to come and chat, which Darcy was happy to do, especially when she realised it was Nick that all the agents referred to as Director).

 

Plus she even had her own office in which she could do anything she liked, decorate it anyway she wanted, a gift from tony upon her arrival to Stark Tower to apologise for ‘Being a mega-ass to a teenage girl’, something Darcy assumed Pepper had a lot to do with.

 

And while she was in her office, which was decorated in a fun happy style with music always playing and a jelly-bean jar always full on her desk (which was used for not-working, something she always did out with the other scientists, Darcy fully believed her office was a space to chill) Darcy was spared from the craziness that existed in the other areas of the Tower. Darcy was able to separate herself from it and engross herself fully in her work. 

 

Unless of course Steve decided to pop by and ask her about the cultural references he had heard that day (some of which she knew were made up by the others just to confuse him)

 

Or Thor needed her help operating a microwave to help cook his food (she had a microwave in her office, just in case Darcy became overwhelmed with the need to eat popcorn but couldn't be bothered to go to the communal kitchen).

 

Or Clint was bored and needed entertainment (which apparently she was required to provide whenever he wanted it).

 

Or Natasha was feeling fed up with the ‘boys’ and needed time to recharge away from the testosterone (which Darcy was happy to provide, and resulted in many conversations with a woman Darcy considered her bad-ass-idol).

 

Darcy loved her job, like seriously loved it. If she had to pick her dream job it would definitely be professional hobo, but right underneath that would be working in Stark tower. Sure sometimes she felt under appreciated, or that she was doing all this work and no results were being made. But every time she successfully convinced on of the Scientist Three to take a nap before they got to super-extreme tired, or she was able to decipher a piece of work from one of them that actually made sense to her and seemed like brilliance on paper, or she was able to spend a couple hours in her office just hanging out with whoever felt like stopping by, Darcy felt very proud.


	4. Darcy in Her Room

When Darcy is in her room, she likes to keep things messy.

 

Well that’s what her mother always called it, but Darcy never found it messy. She could always find just what she wanted. Just because there were clothes on the ground, or her books covered the floor didn’t mean there wasn’t order to it. In fact having everything laid out like that meant running in and grabbing what she needed was surprisingly easy.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Like the time she found out that not only had Steve never watched or read Harry potter, but he didn’t know anything about it, something she would be complaining to SHIELD about why it was missed in his re-education package. And so it was lucky that her pile of books had been pulled from herself and deposited across her desk, she was looking for a particular quote for a cool image to put on tumblr, so it was easy for her to dash into her room, pick them all up and then run back to Steve, dropping them in his arms and while panting explain the importance that they be read immediately.

 

He of course refused, citing that he had more important things to do than read children’s books, which resulted in a giant huff drop of the books on a table and the forcing of Steve into a seat where Darcy proceeded to pick up the 1st one and read it to him. It took only a few pages of Darcy reading while using sound effect and proper English voices before she noticed that Steve was caught up in the story. When she finally had to stop after a few chapters his face fell slightly. Darcy held the book out to him, offering to let him read, but he declined, commenting that he could never do the story justice like she did.

 

Of course this meant that now she had to set aside time for reading Harry Potter to Steve every couple of nights, but they were flying through the books.  And Darcy did enjoy having someone she could geek out with references with.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Like how the piece of cloth Thor gave her varies from being hung on her wall above her bed to being scrunched up under her pillow or draped over the back of her desk chair, depending on where she needs it.

 

It had come from a day when Darcy had woken up sick and unwilling to deal with people. The others living in the tower had noticed her ailments and done what they could to make her feel better or cheer her up. Thor’s by far had been the best. He had visited his home on Asgard and retrieved a piece of soft cloth (that he swears he has no emotional attachments to, but Darcy recons was his safety blanket as a child) and then Thor had gotten all Darcy’s favourites from Asgard to write on it words of encouragement and uplifting.

 

Of course she couldn’t read the figures and scrawls on the piece of cloth, but she had asked Thor many times to explain to her the writing structure and symbols of the Asgardian language, and watched as he told her many tales, often straying from her original question, just happy to be talking about this home and the differences he faced here on earth compared to it. Talking about his parents and their wishes of ‘Good health and life’ on the cloth, or his friends and their talks about having a show down with the warrior who controls lightning in a small box (something Darcy was sure to never be forgotten about on Asgard, apparently Volstagg had taken to singing songs in her honour when he had too much mead)

 

And Darcy always used the blanket on her off days, because she liked to be reminded that no matter how sick she got or how many jerks perved at her, she could snuggle up with the cloth and remember that she had 7 kick-ass aliens/gods who were willing to stick up for her. And that always made her smile.

 

Plus Thor seemed to like to use it as an excuse to come and check on her, claiming that he need to ensure the cloth had not faded or worn in any parts, lest he need to retrieved her a new one on his next visit home.

 

  

* * *

 

 

Or the time Bruce had received a sudden brainwave on his way to the bathroom from his room one day and she had walked outside her room to see him scrawling formulas and diagram son the walls of the hallway in pencil, so she had gone back into her room and headed for the pile of paper she kept on the desk in case inspiration hit her. Darcy also retrieved the container of sparkly pens, because if Bruce was going to go weird in his science, he may as well do it with style.

 

And so she had slipped back into the hallway (dropping half the pile of paper on her floor as she had struggled with the door to her room) and snuck the glitter gel pen into his hand and the piece of paper under it.

 

Bruce had stopped for a second given her a wide smile before his eyes got that far away look again and his mouth started moving in silent equations and her had turned back to the paper and continued writing.

 

Darcy told JARVIS that he was to make sure that the wall wasn’t cleaned until Bruce had copied down the information, before she continued on her way.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Another thing that always makes Darcy’s room appear messy to outsiders is her clothes. While she had been provided a very large and nice wardrobe, Darcy always found that the ability to slip into something much more comfortable without having to take more than 3 steps is a godsend sometimes, and so maybe she just leaves piles of sweatpants and large tees around her room in case she gets in the mood to change. It’s not like she lets them get to dirty, and no one in the tower really cares if her clothes have a few wrinkles.

 

(Of course her formal wear she hangs up nicely away so as not to ruin it, but with her every day wear putting effort in seems pointless.)

 

This knack of ‘not-understanding-the-purpose-of-cleaning-clothes’ (as her mother used to call it) means that it is extremely easy for Darcy to dash into her room and retrieve her favourite large faded old sweatshirt that she uses when she is feeling homesick and race back to Natasha who has just arrived home from a particularly bad mission.

 

Now Darcy adores Natasha, ever since that day back over 10 years ago when they first met. Of course it had been awkward at first with the whole, ‘I saved your life when I was a child’ thing, but Darcy had always tried to look past that and concentrate on the Now Natasha, something she seemed to appreciate. And because of this focus on the present, a very strong friendship had been forged, so that at times Darcy feels like they have been friends for years.

 

And so whenever she sees Natasha distressed, Darcy has the urge to make her feel better, whether it’s from cooking her favourite dish to watching her favourite movie, Darcy does all she can to make sure that she cares for Natasha. And if that means handing over her comfy sweatshirt, which the first time Natasha saw she may have turned her nose up against it until she tried it on and noticed the warmth and comfort and feel like home vibe it gave off. So now that’s one thing Natasha looks forward to when she has a mission, the opportunity to snuggle down in Darcy's sweatshirt. Sometimes they lounge in the movie room and put some mindless movie on and Darcy hugs Natasha reminding her that she is still human. Sometimes if Darcy has to work, Natasha curls up on a couch in her office listen to Darcy as she hums or swears at the computer if its working with or against her and her numbers, enjoying the presence of a light soul.

 

So Darcy doesn't organise her clothes to her mother’s standard but her ability and drive to provide comfort at a moment’s notice doesn't seem to match her mother’s either, so she is okay with that.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Darcy has never found her room messy. Like how the scientists can always understand their notes, if they were actually awake when they wrote them, the organised chaos that exists past the doorway to her room gives Darcy comfort. Her ability to pluck random tennis balls and Frisbees from around the room and throw them into the air, just to get them shot down by an arrow always amuses her.

 

The littered corpses of holey or broken projectiles lie on top of bookshelves as she can never be bother to get them down, plus they provide a nice remind that someone is always looking out for her, even if it’s like majorly creepy.

 

Unfortunately the day that Tony walked into her room and saw her reading a book before tossing a ball into the air for it to get hit was also the day that Darcy discovered a pile of tennis balls in every room of the house. It seems that Tony didn't want their sharpshooter to get rusty just sitting around the tower, or at least that’s how he justified his actions. Although, Darcy has noticed that everyone else’s objects never get hit, but hers never fail to. Darcy thinks it has something to do with a bruised ego form carnival eons ago.

 

* * *

 

 

Darcy’s room is always a mess. From the very first day that she dumped her bags in their not bothering to unpack all the way, littering her stuff over different surfaces, spreading her meager possessions to cover the whole area of the room, but never leaving it Darcy learnt the hard way as a child that while a room can be tolerated messy the rest of the house needs to stay in top shape. And over time as she did shopping or shopping was done for her, the rest of the Avengers seemed to love giving her gifts, Darcy found herself feeling more and more like she lived in the room.

 

The mess provided comfort for Darcy and so upon entering it one day and discovering that its contents had been completely thrown out of the order that she normally has it, Darcy found herself worrying. That was until she noticed while re-‘unorganising’ her stuff that her laptop was missing a few vital parts, and her phone defiantly no longer had a battery or sim card in it, plus the lamp that sat on her desk was missing a few wires and her bedside clock was completely dismantled, and the smell of engine grease and liquor that still faintly hung in her room left one culprit.

 

Getting ready to give Stark a piece of her mind for not only breaking into her room and messing with her stuff, something that had been promised long ago not to be done by any of the others, she stopped at the doorway. Apparently while she had been exploring her rooms he had not noticed the pile of presents that had been dropped off there. State of the art appliances form Stark Tec, some she was sure weren't even in stores yet were piled up.

 

Next to the pile was a small device of some sort, about the size of her hand. Darcy gently picked it up. Her touch seemed too active something and the device came to life so she placed in on her somewhat clear desk and watched as it unfolded to become a miniature robot, shaped just like Wall-E who began to move back and forth across the desk. Smiling as the  robots small arms tried to pick up a pen that sat their Darcy remembered the night before when they had been watching Wall-E as a group and she had announced that she would love nothing more than her own little robot, and how everyone had laughed, but Tony had got his ‘I’m-a-crazy-genius-billionaire-with-too-much-money-and-too-much-brain’ look on his face. Laughing at the device that was till struggling to hold the pen Darcy noticed a note on top of the boxes.

 

It read simply,

_‘I got bored, you weren't here so surprise. P.S. don’t try to sell any of it on eBay I pay you enough and will notice. T ’_

To which Darcy grinned.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

There were many reasons why Darcy liked having a messy room, and as her stay in the Tower lengthened she found herself only adding to the reasons that the mayhem inside her room allowed her to be the constant outside of it, providing for others in the way they needed. Plus, often it felt like a personal 'TAKE THAT' to her mother in proof that she would go far by not picking up after herself.

 

 


	5. Darcy in the Infirmary

When Darcy is in the infirmary she can hardly sit still. And she should know because she is in there quite a bit.

 

When you combine accidents in the lab with Tony Starks need for explosion with crazy evil-doers looking for leverage over the team and her general clumsiness, sometimes Darcy wonders how she manages to spend so much time out of the infirmary. Sure most of the time it’s for basic cuts and scrapes, and now Darcy knows how to self-diagnose a concussion, and normally she is out within the hour. But for the serious times, the ones where death may or may not have been an option at one stage, when Darcy is forced to spend multiple days in the hospital bed under surveillance after she has awoke, those are the days Darcy gets antsy.

 

Although it wasn’t so bad. After strict instructions not to leave her bed, and Bruce promising to look over her, which quickly expanded to everyone in the tower stopping in for regular visits to try and curb her boredom.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

While she is in the infirmary, Steve likes to watch movies with her. At first he claims it is because she is unable to watch with the rest of the Team on Movie night and he doesn't want to fall behind on his pop-culture education. But after a while Darcy notices the movies they watch are ones they had seen before and she had claimed as her favourite.

 

Steve tries to play it off when she tells him, claiming that he either didn’t even realise, or he wanted to watch it again to see if it had the same effect on him. It’s not until they are in their 4th viewing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail that he admits, in between quoting the movie, he was trying to be sneaky. But Darcy decides to let it pass.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When Darcy is subjected to bed rest Tony likes to read her stories. Darcy didn’t know how or why it started, but eventually Tony turned up with a book in his hands and sat down at a chair next to her bedside. Expecting the book to be some science journal or for him to read to himself, Darcy got comfortable and decided to take a nap. That was until she heard Tony clear his throat and begin reading.

 

Listening to Tony read is an experience in itself. The way he did the voices of the characters, or had JARVIS created the sound effects and mood music as the story went on made Darcy feel a lot more captivated in the story that was being read aloud then she normally would.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When Bruce visits her in the infirmary, he brings a stack of brightly coloured square pieces of paper and begins the arduous task of trying to teach her origami. He claims that the methodical folding brings him calm, and that the result often made the effort of not hulking out worth it. But Darcy doesn't mind.

 

It takes a few days, but after a lot of failed attempts and some creations that can only be described as scrunched up paper, Darcy manages to master the crane, rose and an odd looking dragon that requires 4 pieces of paper to look complete. In times when she finds herself alone she creates more, trying to remember the intricate folds Bruce has taught her. The next time he visits she deposits and array of paper shapes on his lap for him to distribute, with careful instructions on which go to who, and where to place them for the best reaction.

 

A couple hours later she hears the distinct cry of a startled Tony as he finds the dragon she had Bruce rig up to drop down at him when he opens his liquor cabinet.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Whenever Pepper visits Darcy while she is still restricted to bed rest, she brings paper work. Its nice still, to have someone nearby, a calming presence like Pepper is when she is in full CEO mode, the aura she gives off of having everything under control.

 

Sometimes she lets Darcy help, and is patient enough to explain all the forms and their purpose, and the real reason Tony is forced to buy 12 new fire extinguishers every month (and Darcy so asked JARVIS nicely to show her the footage of DUM-E and it did not disappoint).

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When Natasha comes by, it always seems to be in the moments just before Darcy succumbs to sleep. It’s as if the woman has an alarm that sounds when Darcy starts to yawn, or her blinks become heavy, which is more often that Darcy would care to admit, but recovering from being shot leaves a girl tired.

 

But as soon as Darcy feels her eyes start to drop, Natasha appears next to her on the bed, softly stroking her hair and murmuring Russian phrases in her ear.

 

There was one night after she had awoken from a particularly bad nightmare, that she felt Natasha’s hand continue to stroke, singing what could only be described as a lullaby in Russian, with a few English phrases thrown in. The tune sits with Darcy for a couple days afterwards, following her in her dreams, keeping her safe from the dark parts of her imagination. It’s a while later that she realises this was the case because Tasha sat next to her most nights, continuing her vigil, singing or humming at the first sing of Darcy’s distress (thanks again for that JARVIS).

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Thor often comes into the room when he is visiting, his loud booming voice quickly making the room seem brighter and more open. He offers to braid Darcy’s hair, and so she sits completely still for what seems like hours before he declares himself finished and shows her the reflection in a mirror. The intricate design across her hair is amazing, and far more than she could ever expect from a man with such large, brutish fingers. He confirms the many lessons and practicing on his own hair, at which Darcy demands he turn around and let her have a go at his hair.

 

She isn't as delicate or good as him, but Thor proudly poses for photos with Darcy, showing of their new hairstyles.

 

Every time he visits, he does a different design. One time he even brings in some wild daisy’s to plait into her hair. Which Darcy enjoys immensely.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When Clint drops by he literally drops by. From the air duct right into the seat that seems to always be ready for him. While his entrance does startle her the first time, it isn't long before Darcy is used to it, always giving of a sigh of boredom when he lands it, just to stir him up.

 

Laughing Clint always manages to Segue perfectly into a story from his past. Whether it be a story about the war, or his time in the circus or secret top missions that he can’t tell anyone about that certainly didn’t happen in Morocco.

 

The way Clint tells a story is an immersion. He provides so much detail that Darcy believes they are actually reliving the moment, His way with words has him turning a 5 minute story of doing an average patrol with mates into an hour long epic, as he describes the surroundings, the smells, the way his mates spoke.

 

It always manages to take Darcy away from the fact she is confined to the bed.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When Jane visits, Darcy notices she makes sure to leave all science at the door. There was a time that Darcy joked if she ever wanted girl talk with Jane all she had to do was get injured and it wouldn’t be long before they got their non-science conversations.

 

Jane is able to sit beside her and tell her stories, or gossip about the others who work in Stark Tower, at one stage she joins Darcy in making origami, showing a great skill at it, and one day upon visiting after Thor and noticing the braids, she demands Darcy do her hair as well, which she leaves for a full week  (but Darcy thinks that just may be because Jane forgot to wash her hair).

 

 

* * *

 

 

Sure, normally Darcy can’t stand hospitals or anything of the sort. The urge to never be still is strong with in her. But whether she is in there for a couple hours, or a couple weeks, Darcy never goes too long without something to do.  And for that she is grateful to her friends.

 

Because with the amount of time she spent in there, she somewhat had to enjoy it.


	6. Darcy at SHIELD HQ

 

When Darcy is at SHIELD she likes to do her snooping.

 

Which may be the reason Fury has limited her access, and she can only be there if followed by no less than 4 agents (she manages to give a group of three or less the slip easily, but Darcy claims she is doing the agency a favour by pointing out its weak spots).

 

Sometimes Darcy visits SHIELD to watch Tasha and Clint train the newbies. It’s a fun process that sees her putting self-bets in her head on which of the agents will cry first and who will make it onto Natasha’s hate list with stupid sexist comments. Darcy finds that she gets it right 9 times out of 10, its one of her special skills.

 

Sometimes Darcy sneaks into SHIELD to fill her days. Whenever Jane, Bruce and Tony are away, or doing experiments that seem to be ‘outside her pay level’, Darcy finds herself wandering. The first time she had wandered to SHIELD HQ, it had taken 3 hours for security to track her down and kick her out, something Darcy found surprising seeing as she had just cut herself into the mainframe and requested a false ID badge for herself a few minutes before entering the building.

 

The second time Darcy found herself at SHIELD she managed to uncover a whole op in the Arctic Circle that was low on supplies. Now she knits hats, blankets and mittens for them in her spare time. It makes Fury literally furious, not only that she discovered it, but that his agents hadn't been taken care of properly for so long, and they have started referring to Darcy as the 'Knitting Angel', and he has many requests from other ops looking for her homemade presents.

 

Darcy’s trips to SHIELD were pretty common. After she decided that finding multiple entry points was a great hobby, she has been known to just appear in many of the different rooms unannounced. There are teams of Agents whose specific purpose is to monitor all live feeds so that when she is found in the building they can sound the alarm.

 

That didn’t help much the day that Agent Hill was doing a very secure briefing. After hearing some of the junior agents begin to fawn over the arrival of a new guy, Darcy decided it was something to check out, so sliding out of her hiding place, she began the task of finding him. It didn’t take long for her to hack the internal software and find out which doors he had recently passed through; leaving a note behind so that when the SHIELD employees found her hack they would be able to hopefully fix it (Darcy didn’t hold high hopes for them.)

 

 

Darcy was shocked when she finally found Agent Hill (who she never called Maria when it was official SHIELD business) and Agent Ward (the guy who apparently had the ‘best abs in the business’ – personally she didn’t see it, too much of a scowl face to be worth the body) making their ways into the lower levels of the building.

 

Using her ‘all-access-pass’ (self-named after Fury refused to give her a pass and so she made her own, which records the entry as a randomised person to help avoid detection), Darcy follows them into the room, watching from the back in a group of Agents as Maria collects a file and begins to speak to Ward.

 

What Darcy is hearing is slightly interesting, but she finds herself getting bored easily. Just as she was about to slip out, a voice from the shadows that’s sounds oddly familiar begins.

 

As the person steps out, Darcy’s cry of ‘Holy SHIT’ does not go amiss, and immediately the two agents standing next to her round on her with their weapons, Ward jumps into action spinning around while Maria just rolls her eyes, quite used to this behaviour from Darcy.

 

Before Agent Coulson, who was now cowering slightly under the strong gaze of Darcy, could say anything, she turns sharply and leaves the room, locking the door behind her in a manner that would prevent any of those inside leaving for a few minutes.

 

Darcy begins her walk to the surface, her brain working super fast trying to figure out what happened and how Agent Should-be-dead-but-apparently-isn't could possibly be not dead. It’s not until she is half way towards the tower that Darcy realises the severity of the situation plus her true emotions on the topic, and she does a complete 180 turn and begins a quick walk (some could say stalk) back towards the HQ.

 

Not even bothering trying to convince the front desk to let her in, she storms past, flashing her badge at the elevators.

 

Darcy knows that there is going to be a very wordy discussion with a few of her previously favourite secret agents. And she makes sure to send a text to Tony letting him know what’s going on. There will be hell to pay.

 

 

 

 


	7. Darcy in the Dining Room

 

 

When Darcy is in the Dining room, she likes to be a family.

 

 

 

Most of the time this is expressed through family dinners, which she requires everyone to attend no matter what – expect for world saving situations, but mostly that just means it gets postponed to when everyone is no longer saving anyone or dying.

 

 

Family dinners are a real affair. There exists a roster of setting the table, clearing he table, washing and drying after there were some complaints made about some certain members not helping out as much as they should.

 

And so of course depending on who is on duty changes how the dinner works.

 

Like for instance, if Tony is scheduled to either wash or dry, Darcy often makes sure dinner is something that requires as little pots, pans and bowls as possible, because more often than not Tony gets bored and leaves the task to one of his bots, which just ends up with broken shards of ceramic and glass littering the kitchen.

 

Or if Natasha is on table setting duty it increase the number of courses prepared, even if the meal then just consists of 9 different appetizers, just so Natasha can lay out 9 different sets of knives and forks at each place, making what is not normally functional but highly decorative sculptures of cutlery.

 

Some nights if Darcy doesn’t really feel like cooking, whoever was supposed to be on clearing duty suddenly finds themselves on cooking duty, which can lead to some interesting meals. Especially if it is Clint, who seems to think Pizza is perfectly acceptable all day every day (which Darcy wishes it was, but all the cheese and grease doesn’t really agree with her skin).

 

 

But it’s not only meals that happen in the dining room.

 

There was the time Darcy had been poking around in the cupboards and found the 10,000 piece puzzle of Niagara Falls, which she saw as a challenge set upon this earth for her to complete. It may have taken a full 4 days plus help from a self-proclaimed genius, a super soldier with a photographic memory, and some spies trained in the art of observation (not to mention the insomnia that everyone seemed to possess at some point during a week that came in handy.) but now there is a new piece of artwork hanging on the wall of Tony’s garage.

 

 

Or the time that Darcy had decided it would be a good bonding experience to play board games, which really she should have known would end terribly. What with Tony declaring that the dice were rigged in Monopoly that resulted in him landing on Natasha Motel on Mayfair (Darcy had noticed there was a certain way the woman flicked her hand when rolling the dice, but decided she must have been seeing something). Plus you should never play Scrabble with so many multi-linguals it only ends in fights over the relevance of accents on letters for words. And never try to play any kind of poker, because everyone finds a way to cheat somehow.

 

 

Or the time that Darcy decided she needed a new piece of art to hang on the wall of the lab, and so left a giant piece of butcher’s paper down one end of the table for a full week. Even with no instructions given, she still wasn’t even a little bit surprised when she came back and saw that it had been covered, with crude drawings from Clint, to weird formulas from Jane (who had a habit of working out maths while eating porridge), to beautiful masterpieces from Steve, not to mention al the ‘quotes’ that had found its way onto the paper. Darcy had it taken to a gallery to be framed and the next day it hung on the wall, right in the face of anyone who tried to enter her office. She liked it there, added a biy of personality.

 

 

Or the time it was final week and so all her notes and lectures were spread so far across the table that dinner had to be eaten on laps in the lounge room while Darcy tuned everyone out, focusing on trying to learn a full semesters worth of work in a couple days. (Tony declared afterwards that she was never allowed to act like that again because getting her to eat and sleep was too hard. This earned him a stern glare from Darcy and a mutter of ‘hypocrite’ from Pepper.)

 

 

And she couldn't forget some her favourite memories of the room, which revolved around the food fight that occurred one night (when it was Bruce’s turn to pick take out and they had all been subjected to some weird vegan gunk that looked like it could grow a consciousness any second, so Darcy throwing it at Clint was perfectly reasonable); or the time they tried to play hide-and-seek and for some reason everyone had missed Thor under the table (for a big guy he was good at not being noticed, and he did stay there until the others decided it was time for food and Steve accidentally kicked him in the face); or the time an enthusiastic replay of a spectacularly impressive move by Clint when he was describing the group of guys he beat up and suddenly Darcy found herself shopping for a new table (she wasn’t sure if the table went through the window of the original story, or if it was an accident that Clint tried to cover up in his usual manner, Darcy was just glad for the railing that it got caught on because the headlines were bad enough with no civilian casualties from falling furniture.)

 

 

But the thing Darcy loved most about the dining room was the fact that it was for them. Their room where they all gathered on a regular basis, where stories were swapped and jokes paid out. Where laughter and anger go hand in hand just like any other normal family.

 

 

 

Well maybe slightly dysfunctional family…

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
